New Zealand wins the Nations Cup. Italy does not qualify

Today the Enduro Nations Cup was held in Finale Ligure. Each country had a team of 3 elite athletes and several female athletes. If something went wrong for Italian men, due to their exclusion (there is a mystery about the motive), then women took fourth place, after France, Germany and Great Britain. Magically, an Italian under-21 women’s team appeared, and it was not announced when the teams were contacted, which reached the podium (Bronze).

In the men’s category, New Zealand beat France and the United States. The full results are here.

[Comunicato stampa] The new 2022 Nations Cup, awarded on stage with the prestigious rainbow jersey and the UCI medal, are the athletes of Team New Zealand (Murray, Walker, Masters) for the men’s category and the French (Bogin, Char, Cordurier) in the women’s category.

The under-21s were the United States’ dominance, with Haggart, Bingham and Bexler in the women’s category, and Chapin, Fisher and Keeler in the men’s category.

Italy climbs the third step of the podium in the women’s under-21 class with three female athletes in Aosta Valley (Pace, Polo, Riva) and in the Master 35+ class with riders Modesti, Rosa and Fruet, who closed the race with a total time of 1:56:20 Only +0:03:02 GBR team winners (Lochhead, Edgworth, Austermuhle). Fourth, the standard holders in the Women PRO class (Rossin, Ellecosta, Scarsi) were slowed down by some mechanical boredom at the start, but a clear comeback at the end of the race.

The race was marked by many twists and turns mainly due to the broken components of the bikes during the first two very long special stages PS1 Fast and Furious and PS2 Megaroller in the upper Val Maremola region. Those two tracks alone have 13.3km and 1,815m of vertical descent, for a total of over 26 minutes of racing, making mistakes here means nullifying any effort.

The race was top notch, very challenging and exhilarating from the start, followed by a large crowd that quickly moved through the morning from the waterfront events village to the private stages to watch the action live.

The most followed special stages were definitely PS3 Final-Borgo and PS5 DH Men, they are easily accessible and very suggestive. The first is visible on the roofs of one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, Finalborgo and the second literally overlooks the sea above the city of Varigotti, the sea that was received only this morning in the person of Finale Ligure Municipal Councilor Dimanio, Environment and Sports Massimo Recinio was awarded the Blue Flag 2022.

EWS is back in 2023, here’s the calendar.